Sonko’s woes expose unease in Jubilee after the handshake

The surprise nomination of controversial lawyer Miguna Miguna as deputy governor has laid bare the intra-Jubilee wars over President Uhuru Kenyatta’s 2022 succession.

Mr Miguna has also been elevated from a brusque social media and TV talk show commentator to become a useful player for various political interests—shunned or embraced whenever appropriate.

Governor Mike Sonko’s shocking move to pick Mr Miguna did not make sense to many.

First, Mr Miguna, the self-declared general of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), is an outspoken critic of Jubilee government.

Secondly, he and Mr Sonko are not particularly friends with Mr Miguna — an unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in last year’s election — describing Mr Sonko as incompetent and with questionable integrity during the campaigns.  

SONKO SUBDUED

Mr Sonko was uncharacteristically subdued in the face of such attacks and, in fact, tweeted in 2016 that he would offer Mr Miguna a job once elected. The governor appeared to have surprisingly kept this promise by nominating Mr Miguna to replace Mr Polycarp Igathe, who resigned as deputy governor in January.

The response from Jubilee was furious. “Miguna will not become the Deputy Governor of Nairobi,” Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja declared in a tweet, “Take that to the bank,” he added.

David Murathe, the Jubilee Party vice chairman claimed that the governor had named the lawyer to divert attention from questions about his performance — and a possible impeachment.

However, Mr Sonko defended his nomination of the controversial lawyer by saying that he was within the law and was not required to consult the party or anyone else as some Jubilee leaders had suggested.

 “He (Miguna) insulted me during the campaigns, but everything has changed. This is not the time to play politics but to dismantle cartels in Nairobi,” he said. He has blamed them for his less-than-impressive performance so far.

HANDSHAKE

Multiple sources told the Nation that Mr Sonko’s move could have been influenced by factions within government that support and oppose the March handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga.

The handshake has caused unease within Jubilee, especially among supporters of Deputy President William Ruto who fear that their man is being shunted in the 2022 succession equation that had appeared to be a shoo-in.

On the other hand, Mr Miguna has been a vocal opponent of the handshake, which critics like him have labelled “handcheque” over allegations that money exchanged hands.

Added to the mix, Mr Sonko repeatedly blamed his woes at City Hall on a group of influential individuals and senior State officials, among them Interior Security Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho and Mr Murathe. The governor claims that this group has not been happy that he defeated their preferred candidate to head Nairobi County in last year’s elections and are out to get him out of office prematurely by all means possible.

DP ALLY

Within Jubilee, Mr Sonko is perceived to be an ally of the DP. The latter intervened when some senior Jubilee officials had refused to give him his nomination certificate after he won the Jubilee primaries in March last year.

“The appointment was meant to send a message to some people that we can even work with our rivals to achieve our goals,” said a Jubilee MP from the Rift Valley who requested to talk freely in the background.

A week after his second deportation on March 29, the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale told a public gathering in Eastleigh that the government would bring back Miguna since he is a Kenyan.

“We want him to come back since Kenya is one,” he said. “As long as he is outside, some will not be happy. We will send Miguna his passport… then he can stand for the 2022 general elections.”

However, on Saturday Mr Duale said that his comments should not be misconstrued to mean that he was preparing the ground for Mr Sonko’s nomination of the lawyer.

“Far from it,” he said. “Mine was a statement in support of the handshake between the President and his rival Raila (Mr Odinga). I was saying even the bitterest enemies should now come together for the sake of development.”

IMPEACH GOVERNOR

Though most Jubilee leaders were not supportive of Mr Miguna’s appointment, they were equally not supportive of Mr Murathe’s claim that efforts to impeach the governor were in the works.

 Mr Sakaja said he had only objected Mr Miguna’s nomination but said it would be unfair for the governor to be impeached for alleged poor performance yet he was only less than a year in the job.

 Majority of the Members of the County Assembly also threw their weight behind the embattled governor. Mr Duale also said impeachment would unnecessarily raise political temperatures.

Some critics dismissed Mr Sonko’s move as a mere a stunt. First, the news of the nomination was broken by Mr Miguna lawyer Cliff Ombeta when he posted the picture of the nomination letter on his social media accounts.

Secondly, Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Beatrice Elachi said she had been handed the nomination letter by Mr Ombeta and not the governor as is the procedure. 

“I have not formally received a letter from Mr Sonko nominating Miguna, but I have taken up the issue with the governor and he is working on it,” said Elachi. Yesterday, she however said the Assembly was ready to consider the nomination.

COMPLETE DRAMA

To complete the drama, Mr Miguna said he had no knowledge about the development he described as a “malicious distraction”, meaning he had not been consulted beforehand.

But beyond the merits and demerits of Mr Sonko’s nomination, the move has once again thrust Mr Miguna into the national limelight at a time when his star seemed to be fading.

The height of Mr Miguna’s fame was when he swore in Raila as the “peoples’ president” at Uhuru Park on January 30, on a day the Nasa leader’s co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Musalia Mudavadi abandoned the ODM leader.

In the crackdown on key players on the mock swearing-in, the government suddenly remembered that Mr Miguna was a Canadian citizen and deported him without ceremony on February 6.

EXCITED NASA BASE

While in Canada, his anticipated return March 26 excited the Nasa base a great deal but this has been dampened after the March 9 handshake.

In Mr Miguna, some saw a potential challenger to Mr Odinga’s decades-long hold on politics. On the strength of court order that had been ignored by government officials and declaring himself a bona fide Kenyan by birth, Mr Miguna sought to be admitted into the country but was once again forcefully removed days later. He, in fact, said he was drugged and removed against his will. 

Since then, he has maintained a relatively low profile, except on social media where he remains vocal, and was expected to land return last Wednesday.